2
University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1986
News Briefs
Airline attendants lose jobs in layoff
MIAMI - Layofs took effect yesterday for 1,010 Eastern Airlines flight attendants and the Air Line Pilots Association said it had mailed ballots to its members to authorize a Feb. 26 strike against the financially ailing carrier.
WASHINGTON — The Haitian government has allowed chartered airplanes to land in the island country's second largest city, Cap-Haïtien, to pick up Americans, and most of them have left, the State Department said yesterday.
Eastern announced last month it would lay off 1,010 flight attendants and cut the salaries of the remaining 6,000 flight attendants by 20 percent.
The department said Monday that the Cap-Haitien airport had been closed because of the rioting in the country and that permission was being sought for charter flights to pick up a small group of Americans. In addition to the charter flights, the Haitian government has given permission for a small missionary-owned private aircraft to fly into Cap-Haitien every morning to bring out Americans who want to leave.
On Monday, ALPA's 27-member Master Executive Council, meeting in Atlanta, voted unanimously to set the Feb. 26 strike date against Eastern.
New anthem wanted
Flights leave Haiti
Nation/World
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — A TV evangelist has asked President Reagan to replace "The Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem because the reference to bursting rockets is a painful reminder of the space shuttle explosion, church officials said yesterday.
Rev. Robert Schuller, host of the "Hour of Power" TV show, said he objected to the lines, "and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air." He suggested that "America the Beautiful," which was sung at the national memorial service for the astronauts, be made the new national song.
From Kansan wires.
Mississippi blast kills eight
United Press International
CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Miss. — An explosion and fire demolished a furniture and appliance store yesterday, killing at least eight people, sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air and shattering windows of nearby businesses.
"We think it is a natural gas leak, but it is under investigation," Capt. Mike Cole of the Crystal Springs Fire Department said. "Eight people are dead and one injured — seriously."
Cole said the blaze was brought under control within 30 minutes, and
firefighters were sifting through the rubble of the Watkins Furniture and Applicance Co. searching for more victims.
"Right now we're mostly concerned with trying to find the bodies," Cole said.
"It blew the back out of the building and then the front, too. There was a big mushroom cloud when it went up. It was pretty bad."
"There were some people in there shopping at the time. I'd say three or four at the most." Cole said.
Copiah County Sheriff Tommy Jackson said the injured man, Paul Edward Brown, 18, was rushed by medical helicopter to the University Medical Center in Jackson.
The victims were burned beyond recognition and were not immediately identified, but Cole said about half the victims were believed to be
employees of the store, owned by Amos Wattkins.
"He was virtually blown through a window. He was on fire," Jackson said.
Watkins' son, Clint Watkins, is one of five candidates in the city's mayoral election, which was being
held yesterday. He was not in the store when it exploded at about 3 p.m.
The sheriff said the metal building was equipped with natural gas heaters hanging from the ceiling.
Jackson said there was no indication of foul play in the blast, which rocked the central Mississippi town of 4,900 about 20 miles south of Jackson.
Cole said the windows in a nearby service station and doctor's office were shattered by the thunderous blast, but suffered no other damage.
Israeli warplanes capture Libvan jet
United Press International
JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes intercepted a private Libyan jet carrying 12 people, including a Syrian political delegation, to Damascus yesterday and forced it to land in Israel.
The Israeli military then conducted a five-hour search for terrorists on the jet before allowing it to leave.
Syria protested the seizure, calling the action an "obvious violation of international law," and called for an
emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir defended the move, calling it a necessary precaution.
The twin-engine executive jet, which left Tripoli, Libya, yesterday morning, was near Cyprus when Cypriot air traffic controllers lost contact with it about 1 p.m.
Two Israeli jet fighters intercepted the plane near Cyprus and ordered it to accompany them to an Israeli airfield, where it landed about 30 minutes later.
Among those on the Libyan plane
was Abdullah al Ahmar, assistant secretary-general of Syrian President Hafez Assad's ruling Baath party. an Israeli spokesman said.
About 6:30 p.m., Israeli military authorities cleared the plane for takeoff. The jet rolled down the runway and lifted off with its flying lights doused to prevent photographers and television crews from filming its departure, a witness said.
The Israelii warplanes forced down the Libyan plane in the belief that "persons involved in planning an attack against Israel" were on board,
an Israeli military spokesman said.
After an examination of the plane and passengers, the Israelis said they allowed the aircraft to leave with all 12 people aboard for Damascus.
Sources close to Israeli intelligence later said the capture of the American-made Gufstream might have been a mistake.
The Israelis apparently were hunting for radical Palestinian leaders who were attending a meeting of Middle Eastern guerrilla groups in Tripoli.
1 million cheer Aquino at final rally
United Press International
MANILA, Philippines — More than 1 million Filipinos, some demanding the execution of President Ferdinand Marcos, flooded a seaside park yesterday in a significant show of support for challenger Corazon Aquino in the last major rally of her campaign.
Philippine presidential debate canceled
The gathering in Luneta Park was the largest anti-government rally in Manila since August 1983, when an estimated 2 million Filipinos attended the funeral of Aquino's husband, assassinated opposition leader, Benigno Aquino.
United Press International
Many of the opposition supporters wore yellow T-shirts and ribbons. The color yellow has become a symbol of protest since Benigno Aquino's murder.
Firecrackers lit the night sky and yellow balloons bearing Benigno Aquino's portrait were released as Mrs. Aquino arrived amid chants of "Cory, Cory."
MANILA, Philippines — The great debate of the Philippines presidential election apparently fell victim yesterday to conflicting demands of the two candidates.
ABC News announced Monday that President Ferdinand Marcos and opposition candidate Corazon Aquino
would appear on its "Nightline" program on a live satellite linkup from Manila.
ment's Commission on Elections raised the legal point, both candidates came up with their own plans to get around the ban.
But nobody seemed aware that the timing of the program would require the candidates to hold their debate Thursday morning Manila time, well into a ban on campaigning for 24 hours before the Friday election.
After the chairman of the govern-
Marcos, who earlier agreed to do the ABC program, decided it was not dignified for the only debate of the election to be handled by American television and shown only in the United States.
Most of the nation's top opposition leaders appeared at the event. Former publisher Joaquin "Chino" Roces, 73, received the biggest aplause when he vowed to storm the presidential palace if Corazon Aquino were cheated in the election Friday.
The crowd chanted, "Hang him,
hang him. Kill him, kill him," referring
to Marcos, as Marco's running
mate, Salvador Laurel, recited a libary of "sins" Marcos is thought to have committed during his 20 years in power.
In her remarks, Aquino predicted the liberation of the Philippines in Friday's voting.
"February 7 will be the beginning of our liberation," the 53-year-old widow said at the final rally of her
Marcos was scheduled to hold the final rally of his re-election bid today at the same park.
campaign. "Freedom is as near as the coming of dawn."
In an address earlier in the day, Marcos alluded to Aquino's threats to lead daily demonstrations if she lost the election because of fraud.
"We are capable of handling anything you may start."
PARIS — A bomb exploded yesterday in a Latin Quarter bookshop frequented by college students, injuring at least three people, sparking a raging fire and sending screaming customers fleeing for safety.
Witnesses said they heard a muffled explosion in the basement of the Gilbert-Jeune book store at about 7:30 p.m. About 70 people were inside at the time.
The blast came as an Arab terrorist group claimed to have set off a bomb Monday that injured eight people on the tourist-packed Champs-Elysees only a short time before police defused another bomb found atop the Eiffel Tower.
Flames quickly engulfed the building as 100 firefighters fought to control the blaze. A fire department doctor said at least three people suffered lacerations and burns but were not seriously injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
The explosion came fewer than 24 hours after a bomb explosion in a garbage can at a mall on the Avenue de Champs-Elysees. That explosion injured eight people, three of them seriously.
In a letter to a French news agency, a group calling itself the "Committee of Solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners" said it was responsible for the bomb on the Avenue de Champs-Elysees.
The letter said the group, which was previously unknown, was seeking the release of two Arabs and an Armenian jailed in France.
Twenty minutes later, an employee at the Eiffel Tower found a small explosive device in a public bathroom at the top of the 984-foot tower. It was timed to go off at 1 a.m. yesterday, an hour after the tower closes to the public, police said.
The bomb exploded at 9:40 p.m. at the Galerie du Claridge shopping mall on the fashionable Champs- Elysees, damaging about 10 stores.
Police were uncertain whether the two bombs were planted by the same group. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the tower bomb.
United Press International
for men and
for women...
in clothing from MISTER GUY...
Paris blast injures 3, starts fire
hours
m-t-w-f-sat
9:30-6 p.m.
th-9:30-8:30 p.m.
sun-noon-5 p.m.
MISTER
GUY
920 mass
842-2700
Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale With Echo Travel at the Riviera Resort Hotel 8 Days/7 Nights of First Class Partying! March 7-16
$239 w/o transportation $334 w/transportation
*4 per room occupancy
The Original, and still No.1 Spring Break Blow-out!
For Info and Sign Up call Janet 841-6526